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Renewable Electricity Standard

This page last reviewed August 25, 2014

Background:

Renewable Electricity Standard and Renewables Portfolio Standard

In order to achieve greater environmental benefits, including lowering
greenhouse gas emissions in the electricity sector, ARB was directed
through Governor’s Executive Order S-21-09
to adopt a regulation by July 31, 2010, requiring the State’s load
serving entities to meet 33 percent of their load with renewable energy
by 2020, thereby raising the target under California’s existing
Renewables Portfolio Standard (RPS) program.

In response to the Executive Order, ARB staff, working closely with the
California Public Utilities Commission, California Energy Commission
and the California Independent System Operator, developed the Renewable
Electricity Standard (RES) regulation. The Board adopted the RES
regulation on September 23, 2010. However, this regulation did
not go into effect because of subsequent legislation (SB X1-2,
Simitian, statutes of 2011) signed by Governor Brown in April 2011,
which codified the 33 percent renewables requirement by 2020. SB
X1-2 applies to all electricity retailers in the state including
publicly owned utilities, investor-owned utilities, electricity service
providers, and community choice aggregators. All of these
entities must meet renewable energy goals of 20 percent of retail sales
from renewables by the end of 2013, 25 percent by the end of 2016, and
33 percent by the end of 2020.